The NASCAR Xfinity Series will look a lot different in 2023.
Noah Gragson is moving up to the NASCAR Cup Series with Petty GMS Racing, and although it hasn’t been made official, Ty Gibbs is likely graduating to Cup, too, succeeding Kyle Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Most recently, on Monday (Oct. 4), The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi shared that his sources say that AJ Allmendinger is on his way to the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Cup entry full time in 2023.
The departures of Gragson, Gibbs and Allmendinger leave a major void in the NASCAR Xfinity Series roster. One name that has been mentioned several times before in this column is Chandler Smith, but his name isn’t linked to a Toyota team. Instead, it’s Chevrolet’s Kaulig Racing.
Chris…
This one was too easy.
Chandler Smith to Kaulig in 2023! pic.twitter.com/TKfgAN54UV
— Caleb (@caleb_matthew21) October 3, 2022
Smith would be a unique choice for Kaulig. If they hired him, it would not be a total shock. However, it would be against the grain compared to other hires by them.
Let’s examine who all has driven for Kaulig Racing in the Xfinity Series since team owner Matt Kaulig founded the team in 2016: Blake Koch, Ryan Truex, Austin Dillon, Allmendinger, Ross Chastain, Justin Haley, Elliott Sadler, Jeb Burton, Zane Smith, Landon Cassill and Daniel Hemric.
When you look at that list of drivers, they all have something in common — with two exceptions — experience. The first exception is Zane Smith. He made a single start for the team in 2021, when he substituted for Haley at Dover Motor Speedway with Haley sidelined by a positive COVID-19 test. The other exception is Haley himself.
Why is Haley an exception to the rule? Compared to the rest, he was young and had the least amount of experience with the rest of the drivers Kaulig has hired throughout its lifetime. Kaulig’s first driver was Koch in 2016, who had run all or most of each season dating back to 2011. Dillon made a one-off start in 2018 and four more in 2019, but he had a plethora of experience and two NASCAR championships. Truex succeeded Koch in 2018 but made his first national series start at the age of 18 in 2010.
Allmendinger was the next driver to take the helm of a Kaulig Chevrolet. He had CART wins and hundreds of Cup Series starts before his first race. Chastain was in a similar boat to Allmendinger as he made his first national start in 2011 in the Camping World Truck Series and had run several full seasons with…
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